Dance community mourns Peter Bingham, father of contact dance in Vancouver
Based for decades at Western Front, long-time EDAM artistic director created more than 50 works and took part in hundreds of performances
Peter Bingham
VANCOUVER’S DANCE scene is mourning the loss of one of its founding fathers this week. Peter Bingham’s enduring passion for contact improvisation has had a lasting impact on the dance that happens in this city today.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of EDAM’s beloved Artistic Director, Peter Bingham,” EDAM posted over the weekend. “Peter touched so many of our lives. We are forever grateful for his artistry, teachings, mentorship, and love that continue to resonate throughout our community. Peter will always be a part of EDAM. We honour and celebrate his memory as we dance into this new beginning.”
Bingham—dancer, choreographer, and artistic director of EDAM (Experimental Dance and Music)—was a pioneer of contact improvisation. He created more than 50 dance works and performed in hundreds of improvised performances in theatres, dance fests, and universities across the country and internationally. For most of those years, he was based at Western Front.
“As a choreographer, performer, teacher, and mentor, Peter was a vital presence within the extended community that gathers in and around our building,” Western Front posted. “Through performances and daily classes, he shaped the life of this space and inspired generations of dancers. His artistry, good humour, generosity, and kindness will be remembered with deep admiration and affection.”
In a post dedicated to Bingham here, EDAM said that in late 2025, the artist shared that he had chosen to access MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying) because of his progressive Parkinson’s disease. “His courageous and open public sharing regarding his journey with MAID offered one more profound lesson in artful presence and clarity,” EDAM, now overseen by artistic director Olivia Shaffer, posted. Bingham passed away on February 9.
In 1977, Bingham cofounded the contact-focused dance company Fulcrum with Helen Clarke and Andrew de Lotbinière Harwood. The company ran until 1979. EDAM was formed in 1982 by Bingham, Jay Hirabayashi, Lola MacLaughlin, Jennifer Mascall, Lola Ryan, Barbara Bourget, and Ahmed Hassan. In 1989, Bingham became the company’s sole artistic director. Among the dancers who came out of his program and continue to contribute to Vancouver’s dance scene are Delia Brett, Hayley Gawthrop, Arash Khakpour, Anne Cooper, and Francesca Frewer, to mention only a few.
The “touch and tumble” of contact improvisation was a hallmark of Bingham’s choreography, which was known for its athleticism, flow, and grace.
As Bingham once wrote of the form: “Contact has always been two fold for me. On one hand it is a movement meditation and practice and on the other hand it is the source material I love [to] use for making performance material both Improvised and choreographed. It has nurtured me through the teaching of it and as the clay that I shape into performance. I believe it takes a very high level of practice to use as performance. It can be taught as a technique or simply as a way of communicating with another person. It is a very beautiful discipline and great recreation.”
In his later years, living with Parkinson’s disease, he continued to mentor and teach dance artists, running morning contact classes from his chair. In his final months, he directed and presented his final work, cuddle of dreams. Recent works included a 2020 presentation of his Woman Walking (away), which former Ballet BC dancer Livona Ellis performed with strong, sultry energy. His life and work was captured in Kaija Pepper’s 2007 biography-memoir The Man Next Door Dances: The Art of Peter Bingham.
“Peter Bingham was my first teacher in Contact Improvisation,” Canadian contemporary-dance artist Sara Coffin posted this week. “Through his teaching—and through the visiting collaborators he brought to EDAM—the world of contact dance opened to me. Beyond the wonders of the form and the skills I developed, Peter taught me how to live inside and alongside a question….He showed me that what bears real fruit is your relationship to the question and your willingness to stay in the unknown. To pose a question and see what happens. The answer is secondary; it is the process of inquiry that teaches you far more.”
“Peter was one of the pioneers of Contact Improvisation in Canada and a foundational teacher at EDAM in Vancouver for over 40 years. His impact shaped the lineage of teachers in Canada,” posted Momentum Contact’s Aalia “Marriki” Hashem this week.
Bingham is survived in his immediate family by wife and fellow artist Raïna von Waldenburg and step-son Mauro Fernandez von Waldenburg. Donations are being collected for the Peter Bingham Legacy Fund at EDAM, dedicated to the long-term sustainability of the company.
In lieu of a memorial service, Bingham bid farewell to friends and colleagues at an Open House and a Living Memorial in the EDAM studio at Western Front. 
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